Altered Carbon – Ep 1

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I had not watched this series, and only had a tangential understanding of the plot from the non-stop Netflix trailers.  Duke and Copper mentioned I should take a closer look, so I popped it on while I was running on the treadmill.  As with most series, the first episode (usually a pilot on TV) needs to establish the main characters, the overall plot, and provide a reason to watch episode 2.  I think the first episode does a good job of this

Tangent to start.  Dark City is 20 years old.  You should watch it, because there’s nary a bad scene in this entire film.  Just avoid the voice over part before the title card… the director’s cut avoids this.  Watching this, you can see how tropes can improve a story.  Very much in the vein of “show don’t tell”, Dark City explores what it really means to be human, and what makes up reality if memories are all we have.

Back to Altered Carbon (AltC).  10 episodes, each 1 hour long.  Pushed like nuts by Netflix (to me at least, based on my habits I guess), then fell to the side when Cloverfield came out, then mute.  Maybe they expect me to binge?  I dunno, but the timelines for new releases are much too short.

The general plot assumption is that people’s identities can be stored in disks, that can be implanted in new bodies (sleeves) to essentially live forever.  How new bodies are acquired is an interesting question, in particular the one provided to the main character.  Looking forward to that.  The main character comes back to life after 250 years (more on this) in order to find the murderer of one of the richest people on earth.  There’s a lot of hints at a complex backstory to this character, and I will say that there’s some depth to it.

What works:

  • Joel Kinnaman as Kovacs does a serviceable job.  He is not a plot device, which is nice to see.  He has his own code of ethics, and methods.  He goes on a hell of a bender, knowing that his options are limited.  Most importantly, his decision making is consistent and rational.
  • The flashbacks to a previous sleeve work in the concept of character development and plot exposition.  There’s another arc that’s started.
  • James Purefoy is always an effective heel, or at least presents himself as one.  There’s an elitism to him that works really well here.
  • The main plot generally follows logical steps.  The scene at the end in the hotel works given the setting.  The opening shot is a bit of “ghost in the shell”, but we go back to tropes and water being a birth channel.  It’s a setting and is not abused.
  • There are fundamental rules to the universe that are consistently applied.  There’s no magic ghost that makes things happen because.  There’s also some religious bits in here relating to immortality that resonate well.
  • The art style works, and the VFX/sound work too.  Again, the art has a purpose relating to the classes.  Someone thought this through.
  • By the end of the episode, it feels like there was some minor closure on items, and that you’re about to step in the deep end of the pool.

What doesn’t work:

  • There are some logical/science issues that don’t really jive.  Kovacs already had multiple bodies before his recent death 250 years ago.  I can barely recognize the world 25 years ago.  It doesn’t make sense to have such a dramatic lack of societal progress after a quarter century.  This is a writing trope from the golden age of sci-fi, and will require some further explanation.
  • Where do the bodies come from?  Is it a financial thing to be immortal, because Kovac’s body is over the top quality to be left for scraps.  I don’t get this.
  • The religious tones are seen in the first 10 minutes, then dropped moving forward, which is a shame.  The concept of immortality is a great opportunity – see Hyperion Cantos for a great example.
  • If the main character is not a cop, then the cops in a series are dumb.  The main cop (Ortega by Martha Higareda) is written like a teenager in an adult’s world.  Her partner does a much better job.  Kovacs is essentially teaching them, which is dumb.  This works in Demolition Man, since cops have not seen a murder in 100 years, but it doesn’t work here.  For an example of a well developed cop, see Shi Qiang in Three Body Problem.
  • The kitchen sink is thrown at Kovacs when it comes to absorbing society, and he goes all in on a hell of a drug/booze bender.  It is a lot for a viewer to absorb, and Kovacs himself has trouble with it.  It’s bad in that I lost sense of the episode for nearly 10 minutes.  It’s good because when Kovacs comes out of it, he wants nothing to do with it, instead wanting to stick with simple/archaic entertainment.  Cutting this down a bit would have let other themes grow.

 

This first episode shows some promise; characters appear to have more than one dimension, and there are multiple plot points that are opened up, with a central mystery to drive the story.  It isn’t binge-worthy, mostly because it throws so much at the screen that I can’t digest it all in time, and the foreshadowing to the next episode isn’t all that strong.

Volume vs Margin

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I have been forever fascinated with numbers, all shapes and sizes.  How they apply to so many situations. I never wanted to be a mathematician, but that was for practical reasons – no one really gets to see how the back end stuff works.  Numbers in spreadsheets though – that’s second nature.

When I was younger, I worked in a grocery store.  The computer system in the 90s was rudimentary – DOS based and made for ordering.  I thought it could be improved and allow for sales projections.  I made a deal with the owner to work full time on an new inventory system, just for the deli side of the business.  Going from paper inventory (every month) to digital was a big change, but it did open my eyes to some parts of the business.  Specifically that a deli was running 30-50% margins on the products because they had a shelf life.  We bought something for $1 and sold for $1.50.  Things with very long lives had ~10% markups.  Things with high volumes had even smaller markups, around 5%.  Each category made a similar amount of gross profit at the end, but through different means.

Games and Damage

Games are similar.  I played some D&D and the numbers for damage were always intriguing.  At level 1, it made sense to take a large weapon for the single swing and damage.  At level 4, well dual blade attacks were possible and mages had a large amount of spells at hand – meaning the single large swing wasn’t as useful.  Armor complicated things, but mages never really worried about that…

Enter computer games and the speed of dice rolling.  In the majority of cases, armor was turned from an absolute number, to a flat %.  This meant that rather than lose say 10 damage per swing, which impacted daggers much more than a greatsword, every attack was now losing 30% damage.  There are many such exampled, but let’s use both EQ and WoW to make the point.

Base weapon damage was “harmonized” to a great degree.  The damage per second was relatively equal per weapon type (ignoring spells for simplicity).  The difference makers were skills and passive benefits.  e.g. using a staff provided a defensive boost, while using fists provided more chance to provoke a status effect.  The choice was in the effect, not so much the damage.  This was a class-first approach.

Development eventually focused on items, and the age of weapon procs came to be.  They were originally % based on the number of attacks, but it was obvious that multiple fast attacks were preferable.  Harmonized again, and the procs then became capped per minute (PPM), and eventually fell out of favor in development practices as they were nigh impossible to keep relevant/balanced across all classes.

Back to magic users for a second… in nearly all cases it’s preferable to take a lower damage skill that can be used quickly (or in movement) versus one that takes a while to trigger.

This is a common thread in other game types as well.  FPS games certainly have sniper rifles / rocket launchers but they require time to set up and great skill to use effectively.  These large attacks need support from other groups to line up.  Card games are similar, it’s a long set up to get a payoff, compared to continually chipping at health.  In most cases, it’s better statistically to go for volume instead of one large attack.

Monster Hunter

The concept of volume and margins applies here, at different points in the game.  It wildly impresses me that all weapons are fairly well balanced, depending on the role that is played.  Dual Blades are all about volume, and they are amazing at applying status effects.  They recover quickly from missed strikes, and therefore favor a very offensive playstyle, and generally reward a critical based attack (affinity).

Charged Blade (and the Heavy Bowgun) are very slow but can deal tremendous damage – if you hit.  They dramatically favor strategic attacks and defensive play.  They have poor crit chance, and instead focus on raw attacks – high margins.

I’ll give two examples.  The Juyratodus is a rather slow water monster.  Easy to hit with the Charged Blade, and will drop over really quickly as there’s room for error.  Dual Blades still deal damage, but since it’s like hitting a barn, they don’t really shine.  The Odogaron is an extremely quick beast that jumps all over the place.  You need to memorize the patterns in order to get a slow/telegraphed strike to hit, or find a way to make him stop moving.  Barring that, Dual Blades can zip all over the place, avoid getting hit, and find flesh to strike the majority of the time.

There are plenty of videos showing what a fully mastered Charge Blade can do.  They all have the Rocksteady Mantle, meaning that you don’t get knocked back.  They all focus on stunning the target to reduce movement.  Reducing the number of variables so that the only thing that matters is damage margins.  Heavy Bowguns are the same… stop the target from moving.

In all honesty, I find it quite fascinating that a game is able to provide that level of flexibility and still maintain balance throughout.  In the majority of games that we see today, there are cookie cutter builds that work in 95% of the situations.  Sure, there are outliers (e.g. Warlock tanks) but when’s the last time we honestly saw true flexibility?  In a world of min-maxing…it is a breath of fresh air to try something and know that it’s more than likely viable.

Cloverfield Paradox

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Murph is watching old movies, I’m watching weird ones.  It so happens to be a genre I rather enjoy – speculative sci-fi.  That is, sci-fi that is just a shade off reality today and in the realm of possible.

Cloverfield Paradox is certainly in that genre, but it suffers for it.

cloverfield_paradox_poster

So just for a second, pretend like this has nothing to do with the Cloverfield universe and is instead just a sci-fi movie.  That makes it a lot easier to watch, since you’re not trying to find links (of which there’s solely one, and it makes the movie worse for it).

Actually, let’s first start with the word paradox.  A set of arguments that appear to be conflicting, yet work together.  The chicken and the egg, going back in time and killing your parents… that sort of thing.  It forces some critical thinking and challenges our perception.  There is no paradox in this film, other than a catchy phrase to talk about inter-dimensional travel that has no set of rules to be followed.

The premise is simple enough.  The world is running out of energy, nearing the brink of war, and countries pile together to send a science ship in orbit to build a particle accelerator to generate large amounts of power.  Convoluted perhaps, but workable.

From that point forward, the entire movie is predicated on sci-fi tropes.

  • multi-national crew that all speak and there are no language barriers (except Zhang Ziyi who can’t).
  • The scientist that no one trusts, with poor plot twist
  • The one dimensional commander who sacrifices himself to save the crew
  • The doctor who’s also a faith practitioner, and won’t perform medical procedures
  • The angry russian
  • The drunk/happy irishman
  • The giant catastrophic event that triggers the film is fixed with a simple solution
  • A group of scientists, hand selected and trained to think logically, make illogical/emotional decisions without justification
  • Random computer errors that kill people
  • Chekov’s gun

Don’t get me wrong, I can live with few tropes in a story.  Not everything has to be 100% original for it to work.  Europa Report is a good example of a small(er) budget sci-fi film that works, despite some of the tropes.  In the best of cases, tropes are vehicles used to expose or familiarize the audience with a concept to make the story go faster.  If you see someone with a cowboy hat in a spaceship… you get an idea of their background.  In the worst of cases, tropes are used to make the story progress.

The bright part of all this is that there are some really good actors/actresses in this film.  The lead part of Ava (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) has multiple dimensions and is generally relateable.  Aside from one decision point that lacks adequate background, she does an admirable job of keeping the story grounded.  The rest of the cast does their part, given the limited character development.

The art is solid, the CG top notch.  The filming style is straight from the 90s, of running sideways down the same corridor, endlessly.  The foreshadowing shots are over the top.  I was waiting for the mustache twirl.

After thinking about it a bit more, there’s certainly a director’s cut of this film somewhere.  There are bits of the story that simply do not make a lick of sense.  Things randomly decide to “phase between worlds” when the plot needs them to.  Oh, someone needs to get hurt?  Let’s phase a body part away.  Oh we need to show something is lost?  Let’s phase it into a body part.  And what’s with any of the scenes on Earth?  They serve zero purpose.  Cutting all of that out, then adding in more space station scenes should have been priority #1.

The thing about JJ Abram’s and his fascination with the mystery box is that someone needs to know what that mystery is.  The joy of the gifts at Christmas is as much imagining what’s inside, as it is in opening them.  And you can’t have a mystery movie if no one is in on the mystery (for reference, see seasons 3+ of Lost).  And that’s the largest problem here – the mystery remains a complete mystery by the end.  There are zero answers given for anything other than “MAGIC OF DIMENSIONAL TRAVEL!”.

I like sci-fi movies for their potential.  The ideas and concepts often work as warnings or guidance to society.  Pandorum is a great example.  Cargo is neat too.  They both have flaws, and tropes, but they succeed at telling a consistent story.  Cloverfield Paradox comes close… very close, but never truly delivers on that promise.  I really hope some aspiring writer pays attention here – this is what happens when an idea is not fully fleshed out, and the editor is absent.  A rough draft, which is really too bad.  I so wanted this to work!

And spoilers here.

The only rational explanation of the final shot of the film (again, a sci-fi horror trope) is that this films tore holes in all dimensions.  In that Cloverfield 1 was in dimension A, and Cloverfield Paradox took place in dimensions B and C.  There are a dozen other questions after that statement.

Olympic Fever

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I’ve been following the Olympics for a while now, something my better half gets a significant amount of joy from watching.  Igloo-world is a winter Olympics country and we usually do pretty well.  Summer… let’s not talk about summer.  It only lasts 2 weeks here anyways.

The “traditional” medal sports here are hockey and curling.  Not that other events have not been medal contenders, but those two have for 20+ years been gold/silver conversations.

Hockey this year is a bit different, at least for the men. There’s no NHL players, so North American countries are a much lower caliber.  OAR and a few other european countries are in a better spot and taking Canada to town.  Women though, nothing much changed.  The US (gold) and Canada (silver) have dominated for 20 years.  There’s still a long way to go for parity.

Curling was dominated by Canada for nearly 30 years.  Just complete washes.  Over the years every country has gotten better, helpful for a sport that isn’t physical but mental instead.  The Canadian women played horribly, and the men just weren’t at the level needed to deliver.  Curling is measured by %shooting, or just rather accuracy.  Medal players shoot in the 90%s.  There were some odd shot choices, and mistakes that typically do not show up at this level.  That, combined with other nations consistently shooting above 80%.

With both of those traditional sports not delivering, it’s opened up eyes to other events.  Ice Dancing, moguls, downhill, speed skating, bobsled…lots of fun to watch events events with some interesting twists. The snowboard big-air competition was something else.   Watching Esther Ledecka win gold on downhill, and unable to believe it is my go-to story for this run.

It’s really something to see both the combination of athletic development (skill) and the ability to report on it (technology).  Some of the replays and art used is quite impressive.  We’ve come so far from tape and 10+ minutes of review.  Even Ice Dancing has a clear on-screen marker for technical score, updated while the skaters are on the ice.  Not to mention I can stream everything from my phone through an official app.  The exposure is great.

It’s also a nice thing to see the country being able to produce a record amount of medals (27 as of this morning) without the traditional ones.  Even those in 4th or 5th are better than the 7,600,000,000 other people on this planet.  Even qualifying is an achievement.

Hope other people are getting as much fun out of watching this as I am.

MHW – Campaign Complete

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I finished up the 3 elder dragons after Nergigante, then the final boss Xeno’jiva, to complete the main campaign.  I won’t go into the hours taken, since there were times I just left the PS4 on… but my guess is around 20.

Of those 4 last dragons, none were the challenge of Nergigante.

Kushala Daora is a nuisance as there are tornadoes everywhere and getting into melee range is a challenge.  Flash Pods work wonders.  Fun little fight, but a ranged attacker will shine here.  The final “nest” zone is chaos, which is great!

Teostra is a fire dog, that has explosions everywhere.  Extremely aggressive and lots of damage over time due to the fire.  The final bit in his lair is a hectic run to avoid all sorts of explosions.  Cool drinks are mandatory to offset the heat HP drain.  It’s quite a lot of fun.

Vaal Hazak is an undead dragon in the Rotten Vale – plenty of Effluvium around.  There’s no way to avoid it, and you need to bring Nullberries to revers the 50% HP debuff.  He is rather weak and slow compared to the other two.

Xeno’jiva is a massive dragon, the largest by far.  Melee really only has a decent chance hitting the front paws.  It acts more like a mobile cannon, continually shooting beams from it’s jaws.  Deadly beams.  It eventually goes crazy and starts leaving fire spots on the ground, and when it rears up on the hind legs, it will generate a large 1-shot AE.  In fact, as a general rule whenever any dragon goes on its hind legs, run away.  Flash Pods don’t work here, and this thing has twice the HP of any other dragon.  Easy battle, just very long.  And sharpening the weapon can be a pain.

 

Closing out after 10 minutes of cutscenes, you unlock a higher HR (level), the ability to meld (use items to make other items, randomly) skill gems, the ability to use two utility devices (now you can always use the Bandit Mantle), and more quests.

I’m far from done with MHW.  It feels like the rest of the game opened up for fun, and I can finally see what I want to focus on as end-game.  Plus, many of earlier challenges are seemingly a lot easier.  My character’s power increase is part of that, but the sheer skill development required to beat some of the tougher monster (looking at you Nergigante) has honed my reflexes to a high degree.

I have two builds I want to try – one that’s crit (affinity) based for my dual blades that requires high sharpness, and another for raw single damage for my switch blade.  It’s neat to see so many skills available to try, though I fully understand the grind to get the appropriate decorations (skill gems) to finalize the build.  I’d guess a solid 40 hours or so before I consider this game “complete”.  Very rare for any game to hit that mark nowdays.

 

The Job-pocalypse

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I work in IT, the field that specializes in making things redundant.  I have made a career out of making my current position redundant, then moving onto another problem area and repeating the process.  What’s left is automated processes for “mundane” activities, allowing people to apply skill to their tasks.  This has impacted jobs, fully conscious, though in most cases they were able to find something else to do.  Always more resistance than not, but human nature isn’t a big fan of change.

If you’ve been paying attention the past 20 odd years, the general theme is that automation has taken over most manufacturing jobs.  Even the overseas companies which were veritable gold mines of cheap labor (compared to robots) are losing out now due to price scales.

There is a single driving factor – money.  It’s cheaper to pay a robot, it’s cheaper in insurance, it’s faster, there’s less defects, and it can work 24/7.  The upfront cost is larger, granted, but the price point for robots and their abilities make them more attractive every day.  How many people have “smart something” in their houses to automate things?  That’s what an Instant Pot does, or Alexa.

Optimization

Society has always aimed for optimization.  Farmers have modified their techniques for generations to get more yield.  Houses are built with more solidity.  Travel paths avoid hazards.  Food last longer.  People are living so much longer.

Always striving to be better.

Industry Change

The trucking industry is 5 years away from being gutted with autonomous vehicles, shipping as we know it will be turned over in 20 years.  Hand made tools and parts are a rarity, and society as a whole isn’t willing to pay $60 for a wrench when they can get 3 for $5.  The energy and natural resources sectors are not coming back to what they were before, no matter what anyone tries to sell as an idea.  Coal is dead – solar is in nearly every single case cheaper to produce and maintain, and even if a mine stayed open, it would be robots running it to save money.

The majority of society has not accepted this.  Global society.  There are still plenty of people who have trouble getting water and light, so this all seems like magic.  That I can talk into my phone and order shoes, which will be delivered to my door tomorrow…hell, even my parents have trouble grasping that.

These are mundane jobs, in that the skill required is generally minimal, and transferable to another individual with minimal investment.  e.g. someone with minimal education, and a small amount of time being shown a task, can then do that task nearly as well as the teacher.  This is the job that “does”.  The advantage here is that individual typically can find another mundane job, though often at lesser pay.

Artificial Intelligence

This is the bigger one.  AI makes decisions on many factors, and executes at a rapid pace, far outstripping human ability.  This has changed the stock market, where nearly all the money exchanged is done through coded algorithms. People used to study piles of data, use their experience and knowledge, them recommend a way forward.   Now you let a computer do all the work.

There’s more an more of it too.  Analytical tools to monitor video feeds, to spot minor changes and alert a human for action.  I mentioned Alexa, or Siri, or Google “butler” services that listen to everything you say and follow on the task.   Computers are being taught to build art, and “deepfakes” is just an exploration of that idea.

Humanity’s ability to think rationally is the largest factor for our success on this planet.  Analysts, trades, masters… in each case we greatly value the unique ability of an individual to do more than another.  To take a complex set of data, rationalize it, and come up with a way forward.  We have rewarded the best of the breed that have that skill…every time someone has a success where another has failed, there was a decision made along the way that made the difference.  These are the jobs that “think”.  If a computer can do a better job than a CEO, then why have a CEO?

That’s a large paradigm shift.  One that most people don’t even realize has happened, since it’s been gradual, and for the most part, positive.  Who drives anywhere now without a GPS giving you the clearest way?  The even more interesting part is that we are directly influencing its learning.  Every click, like, share, interaction…it shows human preference and statistical probability.  We’re on the border of psychohistory – and some may say we’ve passed it with the recent US elections and aftermath.

Side note – BBC has an interesting article on AI used for these purposes.

Last Bastion

There is one trait left that has not had as much success as doing and thinking, and that’s creating.  While it’s an arguable point that every pop star is propelled through algorithmic decisions, true artists are still celebrated.  Sports, music, dance, visual art… all things that robotics can certainly emulate and enhance, but to spawn creativity is a different matter.

It’s not so much to paint a gloomy picture but to just point out that we’ve created something that is generally better at “doing”, getting better at “thinking” every day, and is on the border of “creating” in the next few years.  Those 3 done… well it makes for a good sci-fi story.

Rumor Mill: Disney Shopping Star Wars

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Rumors have a tendency to be self-fulling, in particular when they are on the border of ‘ehh, I guess that’s possible’.  The more they are talked about, the more the folks involved can see if people like the idea.  It’s a well known tactics for a company to plant a rumor, just for that effect.

This one concerns the company I like to dislike.  Seems many others to too – but this is my blog.  Rumor is that Disney is looking for another gaming company to take over the Star Wars franchise from EA.

Neato.

The Good

  • I dislike EA and their business practices.  I used to love EA in the 90s but they, along with Activision, went bananas with greed driving every decision.  EA in particular has a notorious habit of buying smaller developers, and then laying them off.  Then using that company’s IP and re-branding the game with micro-transactions (Bullfrog and Dungeon Keeper are prime).  Anything that hits EA’s pocket book is good, and SW is a massive money maker.
  • It’s possible this goes beyond Lego Star Wars and the rest of the games, where Disney can license the material to many companies.  There is so much potential in that franchise… it seems wasted.
  • The SW mobile games by EA are atrocious – they need to go.
  • RPGs! Where are our SW RPGS?!  EA makes horrible RPGs, this is potential!
  • Rogue Squadron / Tie Fighter anyone?
  • Maybe BioWare can be bought by another company, giving them a second life.

The Bad

  • Loss of this franchise near guarantees massive job cuts.  It really sucks.  Hopefully they can follow the franchise to another company.
  • Disney is the largest media monopoly and the simple thought of this occurring is making waves.  That level of power/influence is scary.
  • Changing companies means a large dip in terms of timelines for a good SW game to let the other company come to speed.
  • There’s a risk that SWTOR closes if this goes through.  Which is unfortunate since it’s a decent game…

The Ugly

  • Knives in everyone’s back until this rumor is put to bed by Disney with a new contract.
  • Could be the complete end of BioWare as Mass Effect is most likely permanently shelved, and SWTOR isn’t exactly brimming with development news.
  • Disney’s driving force is a tough one to crack.  As much as they love money, they value reputation nearly as much.  SW:BF2 didn’t meet it’s market projections and made major negative media lines.  It’s entirely possible that EA addresses this, and this limping beasts keeps moving forward.
  • When giants topple, there are always little folk that get hit that we don’t ever hear about.

Nergigante – Or How I Learned to Love the Dive

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I’ve mentioned numerous times the obscure and obtuse systems that make MHW run so well.  Nergigante is a solid example of that.

Imagine if you will, a giant dragon that continually grows thorns, and if those thorns grow numerous enough, it will throw them at you for a 1 shot kill.  There really isn’t a good way to avoid him using the skill, but enough damage will break the thorns and delay the attack.  Further, the deadliest attack is a dive bomb that not only can kill you straight on, but will explode the thorns sideways as well.  Fun times.

Now onto the obscure systems – namely food and diving.

Food

Food items are based on type and color.  Any increment of 2 (2, 4 or 6) provides a larger benefit.  Food types provide either attack, defense or resists in small/medium/large amounts.  Food colors have a chance of providing a specific buff – there are 6 color types.  One of the most notable ones is from 6 blue items, which can provide a buff that gives 1 free death per quest.  The catch is that ingredients can only be used once per quest, and that buffs can only be triggered if the ingredients are fresh (random if they are, per quest).  You can use a voucher to assure that they are fresh, but you are severely limited in vouchers.  And additional ingredients are found in quests…so it’s unlikely to have say, 6 blue fish before you’re all the way at the end.  And this doesn’t count random daily buffs from food.

All of this is provided in a 2 paragraph tutorial screen that sums to say “eat food before eating to get benefits”.  I needed to test each food combo, click a button to get a description of the skill, then cancel and repeat.  Fun times!

TLDR: Always be eating.

Diving

There are many avoidance moves, depending on a few factors.  Most weapons allow you to roll out of the way, though movement speed can be slow for large weapons.  Some provide a side lunge attack to close the distance, or to run away. Understanding how those moves works allows you to stay away from the face, and focus on the sides without getting hit.

Then there’s superman.  This is achieved by sheathing your weapon, pressing run and dodge at the same time.  You will launch yourself on your belly and for most of that duration, be immune to damage.  The catch here is that each weapon takes a different amount of time to put away, and you need stamina to dive.  One of the only effective ways to avoid Nergigante’s dive bomb attack is to use this move.

It took me way too long to figure out this invincibility bit, and once I did, Nergigante became a different fight altogether.

(Side note.  Diving/jumping from ledges acts differently if you have your weapon out or not.  Ledges can act as walls in some cases)

Free Addition: Flash Pods

Flashbugs can be turned into Flash Pods.  You can have up to 10 of the former, and 3 of the latter.  Using this on your sling attack will cause a monster to be disoriented. Using it on a flying dragon causes them to fall down and get slightly stunned.

Flash Pods have a ~90% success rate.  Be sure the monster is affected before running over.

TLDR: Always have Flash Pods.

 

The more I play of this, the more I realize the sheer stupid pleasure of a grind.  Where else would I play for 45 minutes, fail in a spectacular fashion, and still have a smile?  It seems like every single action taken, no matter how small or large, provides some movement forward.  I learn a new skill nuance, I learn new timing, I get a new ingredient for a buff, I find a new gem, I get the last piece to craft that piece of gear.  And there’s a lot of joy heading back and smacking some heads that took me to town not too long ago!

Hunting Tips

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I’ve done a fair chunk of hunting now.  Nowhere close to some other people, but enough to have a general idea of what’s going on.  One thing I’ve come to terms with is that Monster Hunter World is complicated and obtuse – something that will push people away.

Sure, at the most basic level you run through environments and kill really big monsters.  And you can do just that, until the Anjanath (T-Rex battle).  From there on, there are some rather large walls that need to be breached.  My thoughts on that.

Weapons

Try them all out in your personal quarters.  The trial mode isn’t super, but it works enough.  Realize that the Horn is meant for group play only, and that the 2 ranged weapons are much better suited for group play but can work solo.  Blunt weapons will work to stun an enemy on the head, and sharp weapons will be able to cut off tails.  Tails, in nearly all cases, are very dangerous and cutting one off makes some battles pretty easy.

Keep a “normal” weapon with no elemental damage at maximum upgrade rank, and use it for all new quests where you’re not sure what enemy you’re going to face.  It is also quite useful for missions where you fight multiple enemies with different resistances.  After that, you want to have a weapon of each damage element type – they make a massive difference.

Use the Wishlist feature (triangle on PS4) to track items.  It took me too long to figure out the use for this.  Great for when you’re tracking materials for 5 items at once.

Some weapon effects are greyed out.  They need the Free Elem/Ammo Up armor skill to activate.  Charms and a few armor pieces have this.

Armor

My rule of thumb now is that your defense level be equal to the Assigned Mission level x 10.  So if you’re on mission 12, then have at least 120 defense.  Low defense means you die faster, and you will get hit in long battles for various reasons.  Having high defense means you can ignore most mechanics and just go to town.

Resistances are good too, and you want to stay as close to neutral as possible.  In particular for Fire attacks.  You can use buffs to help with this instead of armor if need be, but keep it in mind.

Armor skills are great to have, but you’ll find yourself worrying about the above more than this for the middle part of the game.  Decorations (gems) and Charms (necklace) can add some extra skills without impacting armor.

Tools

Mantles and gizmos provide all sorts of benefits.  You’ll get the Gillie Mantle first, which hides you from combat.  Great to heal, or sharpen a blade.  You’ll find other types through optional quests that increase resistances, damage, or other useful features.  Each has a timer for re-use.  I personally like the healing mist tool, as I can put it down and the effects last for quite a while.

Palico

You Palico is very useful.  Their weapon type is great for inflicting status on enemies, not so much for damage.  The Palico can’t die but will be stunned for a bit if it takes too much damage.  Not much value in the armor here, except for cosmetic reasons.  Palico tools though… that’s good stuff.

Each zone has a Grimalkyne base, they looks like Palicos.  The icon on the map is 4 white icons.  Each has a quest involved, which rewards you with a tool and the ability for your Palico to ride a smaller animal in combat.  The solid one is from the Rotten Vale (zone 4), which is a Plunder Blade.  This thing allows your Palico to loot more items from combat… extremely useful when you are looking for ingredients.  And of note, each of the tools has 10 levels, gained through use.  Each level improves the function of the tool.  The Vigorwasp tool should be used for any new enemy, allowing you more room to learn.

Also of note, Palicos are not in battles with 3 or more players, but still gain experience.

Safaris / Argosy / Tree

These are free-ish loot events.  The Palico safaris unlock with zone 4, and you select a group of Palicos to spend 5 quests collecting items.  Their skill level needs to match/exceed the events in the quests.  Good to find some specific resources.

The Argosy is a rotating vendor, with 3 packages.  You can select the type of package for the next round.  I’ve found a few rare items here.

The Tree allows you to plant items that grow after every quest. There are more additional quests to plant extra things, grow them faster, and have more space to collect.  I use it solely to generate Zenny (gold).  Has uses.

Food

This is way more complicated than I like.  Long story short, eat before every mission.  For monsters that you consider easy, choose the Attack buff food, otherwise focus on Defense.  Food has a 10 minute timer before you can eat again, and if you die you lose the buff.

Complete optional quests in order to unlock more food types.  They have a big impact in the buffs food provides.

Nutrients also provide temporary food-like buffs.  You should not need any until you’re at the very high rank battles.

Quest Types

Assignments are the main story missions.  One time events (sort of ) that cannot be repeated.  They unlock more zones and more options.  These are the walls you need to breach with better weapons & armor.

Optional Quests provide 1 time benefits (extra food, items, gear) and are repeatable.  There’s no reason to do them more than once, with an exception.  Some main mission battles against Elder Dragons show up here after you’ve completed the assignment.  They randomly appear, with 2 attempts each.  Strongly recommend doing these.

Investigations are repeatable quests that focus on a specific activity, on a specific target.  Kill 20 wasps, capture an Anjanath, and so on.  Unlocking more is based on a ton of things.  Finding more tracks, killing monsters, looting items… just normal play will unlock more of them.  After a while, you’ll want to delete the lower ranked ones to make place for higher ranked events.

Bounties – these are not exactly quests but collection missions that can be completed at any time.  They unlock additional hunting sites, more food, more storage… very useful things.

The general order of things for me is

  1. Assigned quests until I hit a wall
  2. Optional quests that unlock needed items
  3. Investigations for specific enemies where I know I need their drops

Captures

This investigation type provides additional loot, but requires some extra steps.  You have to bring the enemy down to near-death status (often shown by a limp).  Then you need to lay down a trap for the monster to walk through – lightning works best.  That’s a Thunder Bug (in zones) and a Trap Tool (from town).  Then stand at the head and throw at least 2 Tranq Bombs (Sleep Flower + Parashroom – both in the zones).  If you are prepared, these are actually easier than regular fights.

Big Monster Battles

Some general tips.

  • Pay attention to attack patterns.  They often chain together.
  • Understand your weapon, how much time it takes to attack, and how long you cannot move.
  • Do not attack any enemy head on.  They will bite, or shoot something at you.  Attack the head from the side.
  • If you have a sharp weapon, always sever the tail.  It provides more loot, and removes a painful attack.
  • Attack from above where possible.  Jump, and attack in the air when close to the enemy.  You may mount them, or provide a ton of damage, while avoiding most.
  • You want to see reddish numbers when attacking.  And large numbers.  Each part of the enemy has different armor levels on the body.  Pay attention to the numbers.
  • Enemies will change location in battle after a specific set of time, and sometimes after a certain amount of damage is dealt.
  • If another large monster shows up, step away and watch the fireworks.  There’s nothing worse than getting a fireball in the back.  Bazelgeuse in particular does this.
  • Keep weapon sharpness in mind.  You always want it to be “in the green”.  Yellow will do with weaker enemies, but won’t be able to hit tougher ones.  Always sharpen when you’re tracking a monster after they run away.
  • Negative effects are super useful.  Stun is obvious.  Sleep allows you to lay down bombs (always carry 2).  Paralyze negates their abilities, though they still shuffle.  Poison does some minor damage over time.  Blast is a lategame skill that acts a bit like poison – but the damage is all at once instead of overtime.
  • Elderseal only impacts elder dragons.
  • If you can’t kill a monster in the 50 minute timeslot, upgrade your weapons and pay attention to resists.

 

Virtual Value

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The previous post talked about lockboxes and the challenge around calling it gambling.  I argue that the distinguishing difference is that gambling is a known loss, with a chance at winning, while lockboxes are a known win, with a chance of a bonus.

There’s a fundamental weakness to this argument though and that’s the concept of value of goods.

This is actually a relatively old argument, and one that eBay struggled with nearly 20 years ago.  If you read any of the EULAs for modern games, they are fairly clear that the actual ownership of these items never belongs to you, but is more or less “loaned” and can be reclaimed at any time.  Let’s walk through those impacts.

Real World

Let’s say I buy (not lease, rent, or take a loan) a car for $30,000.  It has an agreed to value, using globally negotiated currency.  I won’t go into what the level set it (gold to USD) but I know that there’s a specific value, and the courts will recognize that value.  The car company and the seller cannot take that car from me without compensation.  I own it.  If they do take it, I can go to court and get my money back.  Hundreds of years of property laws cover this.

Virtual World

I pay for services, not products, as per the agreement.  Let’s say I acquire the Sword of Death in the game.  This has a high virtual value due to it’s rarity.  I could try to exchange it, using in-game currency.  That’s akin to bartering.  Two people, using an un-managed currency, coming to terms on value.  There is no legal recourse to this exchange.  There are certain ethical issues, and this is why you sometimes see game companies do something when there’s internal fraud (I use that term loosely).  Heck, that’s discounting the ability to acquire something yourself simply by investing time (say a rare drop from a raid), that cannot be traded.  Enter the P2W conversation…

Inflation

This is the increase of value of an item, based on the increase of available currency.  In the real world, inflation is controlled to a degree by central banks/agencies through interest rates, currency issuance and other monetary methods.

Games have sinks and faucets, and often times much larger faucets.  WoW is a good example.  10 years ago, 1000 gold was considered rich.  Today, 1000 gold is an afterthought.

Devaluation

When you drive that car off the parking lot, it loses value.  Anything used loses value.  Very few items ever increase, in natural value – typically art/gems.  Virtual goods are similar.  That Sword of Death becomes obsolete after the next patch by the Twig of Destiny.   You may spend an entire fortune acquiring one item, and then a couple months later, that value is completely lost.

Currency Conversion

There are plenty of exchange options for real currency.  Large organizations collude (that is the correct word) to set the trading rate, but are overseen by laws.  (see: LIBOR scandal).  This has gradual changes over time, and is usually based on GDP and inflation, along with overall market value.

Virtual conversion is also usually straightforward, as it is brokered by the game company.  You are buying virtual assets, to use in a specific bartering session, for an item that is unique to that environment.  It is a fairly rare occurrence that you can then resell that currency.  And you cannot transfer that item to another environment.

A real-world analogy would be buying a car in Paris, France.  You would take your currency, trade it to local baguettes (that can’t be used anywhere else but that car dealer), then buy the car that you can’t use anywhere else but Paris.  To get your money back, you’d need to trade it back for baguettes, then find a currency trader that wants those baguettes and has the currency you’re looking for.

Direct Buying Power

This is the crux of the issue – the real-world value of a virtual good that cannot be used anywhere else.  The Sword of Death in one game would have zero value in another.  You would have to extract the normalized (real-world) currency value, based on the exchange rate for virtual currency (if any).   Ex:  $5 gets me 20 gold, which can buy a super sword in Game 1.  $5 gets me 1000 gold, which gets me a twig in Game 2.  Virtually, they have different values, in the context of those games.  In practice, they have the same value.

The Lockbox Connundrum

For lockboxes to be considered gambling, the real-world value of the items has to be zero in most cases, and rarely above.  That gets even murkier, since many of the items in the lockboxes cannot be acquired by other means.  That special skin is locked in a lockbox, you can’t get it any other way.  And maybe that’s a premium skin, vs a regular one.  There is no real-world gambling analogy to that model.  Well, not entirely true.  There are many lottery types that are legal within a country, but not within some of their states/provinces due to the nuance.

The fundamental problem then, is associating real-world value to virtual goods.  There’s no scale, no measure, no consistency across the medium.  We’re at that lovely cross road of law, and of ethics.  Territory that is so uncharted and vast that no one knows where to even start.  It’s a multi-trillion dollar industry, there’s going to be pushback.

Now, that doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be treated like a controlled substance (a separate fun argument), or that it should be absolved of regulation.  Ethics + money = regulator’s dream job.  Now, if EA was smart and wanted to head this off at the pass, they would set up their own board (with other companies) to set some ground rules.  ESRB is such an example.  But dollars to donuts, the execs don’t see the issue yet.  BF2 was the tip of the iceberg.  They see lost dollars.. not the hammer coming in for a swing.